Most computer devices such as personal computers have a software image in a local storage medium, such as a hard disk, that includes the base operating system and applications required to run the device. The Rapid Restore Patent discloses one method for quickly and easily restoring a computer to a previous version, for example, after its image has been corrupted. However, this patent does not address a way of providing an initial image onto a machine, particularly when there are various types of computers and various models of them onto which an image is to be loaded.
Installing an operating system today provides a limited set of configuration options during installation time. In addition, it does not provide the installation of third party software. Due to these limitations, there are two common methods of installation of an initial image that exist in prior art. One is to use silent installations, where each device goes through an unattended installation of the operating system and applications, and cloning, where a single copy of the operating system and applications is applied to multiple devices of identical type. It is also common to use a hybrid of these techniques where the initial base operating system is applied with cloning and the applications are applied through silent installs.
The current processes each have downsides related to image integrity. In the use of silent installs, it is difficult to ensure consistent image integrity and versioning. In the use of cloning, an image is tied to a single device type. If several model machines are being utilized, then it is necessary to have an image for each model machine, again introducing a challenge to maintain image integrity between device types for security settings, Operating System configuration, application versions and configuration.
There are extensive costs associated with an image lifecycle. This starts with multiple image creation efforts to support multiple device types. It is common to have thousands of settings required to be set to have an image comply with corporate policies. This is then compounded by the requirement to perform packaging, Quality Assurance and Integration testing and security for each variation of an image in production.
The current invention is designed to remove the initial issues with image integrity, while helping to reduce costs related to ongoing image maintenance. It does this by allowing an image to be created one time and to be utilized across multiple device types. By using an image versus unattended install, it removes the controls required to maintain appropriate versioning and final image integrity. In addition, by now allowing a cloned image to be used across multiple device types, it also removes the risk to image integrity by having to set thousands of settings for each image and risking having a variance on a setting between images. The current invention allows an image to be created a single time, with the appropriate Operating System configuration, Security Settings, and applications ensuring that the settings will remain consistent across the machines within the enterprise. This reduces the complexity and costs associated with the previously stated image lifecycle management of multiple efforts related to packaging, Quality Assurance and Integration testing and security for each variation of an image in production.
Other limitations and disadvantages of the systems and methods of the prior art will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the following summary of the invention taken together with the description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings.